Pierre Gasly has blamed the collision that took him out of the Monaco Grand Prix on his former Formula 1 team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, claiming the latter moved under braking.
Tsunoda and Gasly were running 17th and 18th – after making their first mandatory pitstop as early as lap 1 – when the Alpine driver attacked his Red Bull peer at the chicane.
Gasly violently crashed into Tsunoda, with the TV broadcast featuring a “no brakes” radio message. However, the Frenchman has clarified that this comment was taken out of context.
“I had the brakes,” he insisted. “Yuki made a mistake before the tunnel, so I got very close to him.
“Every lap he was braking on the racing line on the right. This lap I was very close, so I decided to stay on the left. He started braking on the left, I committed to the right and then he moved back onto the racing line. I was already committing and braking later than him, so I just couldn't go anywhere.
“For me, here, you've got to stick to your line. You already have no space to put two cars together. You can defend the position, but then it's not a case of ‘I go right, I close the door to the right and then if you try to go left, I squeeze you to the left as well’. It's a track where it's already hard enough. I just thought, ‘he'll leave the space’.
“I'm sure we'll chat about it, but I don't think it was his finest moment.”
However, when Gasly’s comments were put to the Japanese racer – rephrased as “erratic driving” – an astonished Tsunoda exclaimed: “What? I don't think I did anything wrong.
“I would do the same if I had one more time – because I was hugging the wall all the time. I knew he would try to overtake, and I didn't want to move under braking.”
Regardless, it was yet another difficult weekend for Alpine, which suffered its worst qualifying session of the season with Gasly in 18th and team-mate Franco Colapinto last; the Argentine took 13th position in the race.
Gasly nonetheless expected the Monte Carlo track not to suit Alpine’s A525 car.
“For me, it's mainly about understanding what didn't really work in qualifying, which I think we already have some ideas [about] – but we also know this track would always highlight some weaknesses of the car in terms of ride,” he pointed out.
“The ride in general, we know, is not the strength of our car. It's on a track like this where you're going very low speed, you go over kerbs, you're three-wheeling in many places. We're just lacking compliance at the moment.”
Gasly expects a much better showing this weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, on a diametrically opposed layout where Alpine got both cars in Q3 and in points-paying positions last year.
“I think Barcelona should be better. It's more high-speed corners. It's a smoother track surface, so I think it should be better.”
Additional reporting by Cihangir Perperik
